Grocers Daughter Chocolate

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Empire Anchor Day Festival returns Saturday—but movie canceled Friday

Empire will holds its annual Anchor Day Festival this weekend, but with a shortened schedule of events, given the shoddy air quality due to the wildfire smoke from Canada and Minnesota. Tonight’s movie at the Township Hall is canceled since the building has no air conditioning and air quality over Leelanau County might not improve until tomorrow. The parade, chicken dinner, and an evening street dance scheduled for Saturday, July 18, are still on. Stay tuned for updates, and click here for a lineup of events.

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Empire holds Winterfest on Saturday, February 21

As northern Michigan continues to experience a very snowy and cold winter, the Empire Area Community Center (EACC) plans to embrace the elements with the annual Empire Winterfest. Events will be hosted throughout the village of Empire on Saturday, Feb. 21, including the long-standing tradition of a polar plunge in South Bar Lake.

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Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate, Folded Leaf, area students join ICE OUT! nationwide protests

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Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate in Empire is closed today, as part of a nationwide “ICE OUT!” day of protest to call attention to the federal agency’s aggressive tactics in Minneapolis, which have resulted this month in the killing of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The Folded Leaf bookstore in Cedar will also close today in solidarity with protests against ICE. Traverse City Area Public School high school students are also planning a walk-out this afternoon to stand in solidarity with Minneapolis and protest ICE.

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Lively NeighborFood Market hosts farm-to-table dinner series

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The Lively NeighborFood Market continues its focus on supporting small local farms by inviting area chefs and neighbors to come together around a Farm-to-Table Dinner Series that celebrates the bounty of our region—even in the winter months. On Mondays in January and February the NeighborFood Market is hosting multi-course meals for 26 guests with reservations seated at a beautiful candlelit community table. The guest chefs come from a wide range of backgrounds, but all have strong connections to western Leelanau County.

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Tariffs and boycotts and supply shortages, oh my!

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The Trump administration’s federal policies and steep tariffs are adversely impacting Leelanau companies that sell chocolate, coffee, fruit and wine. “Never in my 23 years as a small business owner have I felt obstructed by our national government in my ability to operate, manage, and grow my business as I do now under President Trump,” said Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate co-owner Jody Hayden. “Like many small businesses, we’re feeling the effects of a very uncertain and volatile global economy.” On its most recent shipment of bulk chocolate, valued at $171,500, the small business based in Empire paid a tariff of $24,725 after Trump raised duties on Ecuadorian products to 15 percent on July 31.

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Honoring the workers who powered us through the summer

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Many local Leelanau County businesses rely, in part, on J-1 international student workers to shoulder the load through the busy summer tourism season. Each Labor Day weekend, we honor and thank those workers. Meet a few of them here—from Anderson’s Market, Art’s Tavern, Grocers Daughter Chocolate, Blu, Crystal River Outfitters and La Becasse.

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Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate adds pop-ups, honors Latin American connections

Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate features two special pop-ups within its gelateria in Empire this summer. One sells Miriam Teran’s Kichwa artisan wares from her indigenous community in northern Ecuador. The presence of Miriam’s crafts emphasizes the company’s connection to Ecuador, from which Grocer’s Daughter sources all its chocolate. The other pop-up, Adriana’s Kitchen, features traditional food from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, including steak and chicken tacos, tostadas and burritos, served with rice, beans and salsa. “Our intent behind the pop-ups is to uplift these incredible women and to try new, fun (and delicious) things at Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate,” said Grocer’s Daughter co-owner Jody Hayden.

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Earth Week includes rally in support of National Parks, Leelanau Conservancy events, Seth Bernard concert

This week is Earth Week, with Earth Day honored on Tuesday, April 22. It’s also National Park Week. Events in Leelanau County include a rally on Tuesday at 3 pm in Empire to support Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore—which has faced deep spending cuts and a hiring freeze by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the Leelanau Conservancy offers opportunities each day this week, starting tomorrow, to join hikes, volunteer, attend a trivia night, and learn about local efforts to preserve trees.

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Sleeping Bear manhunt, Empire sugar bear, Pop-tart man Bill Post, Twin Flames wedding: Glen Arbor Sun’s top-viewed stories of 2024

Our coverage in 2024 featured crimes, celebrities, cool new businesses, and an homage to the now removed Crystal River culverts. Our top 10 most-read stories included: a manhunt in the National Lakeshore; the search for a black bear that broke into Grocers Daughter Chocolate and devoured a 50-pound bag of sugar; Jerry Seinfeld’s movie “Unfrosted” about Pop-Tart man Bill Post, and the Twin Flames Universe cult’s secretive wedding in Traverse City. Thanks for your readership. We look forward to sharing more stories of Leelanau County events, characters, businesses, and the arts in 2025. Here’s the list of our Top 10 stories by online views in 2024.

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Bear crazy: DNR study seeks answers to human-bear conflict

With so many reports of bear sightings in northern Michigan—the Michigan Department of Natural Resources estimates there are 2,000 black bears living here, with more than 10,000 in the Upper Peninsula—author Tim Mulherin selected the black bear as a subject of interest as part of his research for a book on Michigan’s wildlife. The Empire “sugar bear” made headlines when it broke into Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate this past April; in our May edition of we examined how humans struggle to coexist with black bears as our encroachment upon their habitat continues. Last spring, the DNR connected Mulherin with researchers from Utah State University, who are conducting a study called the Baldwin Bear Project. The project “aims to understand the ecology and human dimensions of black bears in Michigan,” with an emphasis on examining the growing population here.

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